Black Writers

You don't often hear "African-American" and "Korean-American" in the same sentence without thinking of racial conflict. But maybe that's the whole point. I want to open up a conversation, and not just with my students.

Almost 25 years ago, living in LA and working in the film industry, I decided to write a screenplay. I had abandoned prose writing somewhere in college, having been scared straight out of the writing habit via the tender ministrations of visiting New Yorker short story virtuosi creative writing instructors and my own mountainous insecurities and fears.

Hers was a life born of nothingness, of vicious sexual assault, of shattered boulevards and smashed glass windows. But from the muck of that life, Maya Angelou became a voice for girls, for women, and even for boys like me.

Reflecting changes in society that have catalyzed the need for diverse voices to be heard, there has been an increase in Black women playwrights. The trend is present in Hollywood where short plays by and about Black women will be presented in BWSOTU.

Hollywood often ignores pleas for more diverse casting and continues to deny the negative impact it has on society as a whole. Seeing more diverse couples on screen makes the subject easier to discuss around the dinner table.